Retail Foot Traffic Rose 8.2% over Thanksgiving Weekend

Sean Gallup/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — It will almost certainly take several weeks for the retail industry to know if they can celebrate a rise in holiday sales. But ShopperTrak, a firm that analyzes customer traffic, is out with its estimates.

The Chicago-based company says stores had a strong 8.2 percent rise in foot traffic over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend compared to last year.

Total sales, meanwhile, increased only 2.7 percent from 2011, with shoppers spending about $22 million between Thursday and Sunday.